With Christmas being right around the corner, Pampa Chamber of Commerce Director, Cortnie Patterson reminds people to shop local with our hometown stores.
“Small business is the backbone of our economy, 64% of our new jobs in the U.S. come from small business,” Patterson said. “When people spend their dollars locally, more money stays local. On average, for every $100 spent locally, $68 of that stays here.”
The campaign ‘Shop local’ was started by Patterson to boost our towns very own stores. Most of our hometown shopping is downtown, keeping them in the same block makes it easier to browse for every member of your family.
“By implementing Shop Pampa first, we hope to encourage people to patronize all sorts of small businesses this holiday,” Patterson said. “In addition to our wonderful retail options, there are dining establishments, personal service providers, even local artisans that need our support. Shop Pampa First is a way to help our residents develop a better appreciation for how their spending affects our area and quality of life.”
Another reminder Patterson had for last minute shoppers, gift certificates. Most all establishments offer gift certificates that encourage people to shop somewhere they may not have used before, and then encourage them to continue coming back.
“A gift certificate supports our businesses and bring new customers into a store,” Patterson said. “More often than not, someone will take that certificate and then spend more on top of it at the business once they’ve seen all there is to offer. It keeps the money local and supports our hometown people which is vital for our community.”
Many business are posting their sales on Facebook, or even by looking at the Pampa Chamber Facebook you’ll see the great deals going on. The chamber is encouraging all businesses to participate in its efforts to raise awareness of how supporting small business improves the quality of life for the entire community.
“All businesses need one another. There’s a symbiotic relationship.” Patterson said. “But small business is the most endangered because many small businesses don’t operate with large cash reserves. When costs skyrocket, they feel it.”
The Pampa Chamber of Commerce is challenging everyone in the area to support small business this holiday season.
In addition to the year coming to an end, Cortnie and her team are rearing up for next year’s events. Next year the chamber hopes to bring new ideas to continue growing.
“Every year we want to keep bringing in new things. We take what we learn and move on, if an event doesn’t work very well then we won’t try it again, but we can’t learn if we don’t try.” Patterson said. “Our word for the year was vitality, which means strong and active and that’s what we want to be as a chamber.”
The Chamber has already laid out dates for the Chamber Banquet and Awards Banquet and the Country Fair. Although the Christmas Parade just wrapped, the date for next year is already marked down.
“We just want to be as planned ahead as much as we can,” Patterson said. “I love new ideas for events because it keeps our word for the year true, and we want to continue doing that.”
The chamber has some potential new ideas in the works for 2023 that they hope to roll out and see how the community reacts to it.
